Prashanta Chatterjee (Chhabi Biswas) is sentenced to life imprisonment after the alleged murder of Hemangini, a lady based in Krishnanagar whom he is accused of loving and then dumping and murdering heinously.
Twelve years later, his only son Shankar (Uttam Kumar), who lives with his mother (Sobha Sen) in Patna, comes to Krishnanagar to prove his father's innocence and bring the actual perpetrators to justice. There he falls in love with Rita (Suchitra Sen), a girl who too had a life history of injustice. Together, they secretly conjure up various evidences against the actual criminal, a government lawyer(Nitish Mukherjee) who originally fought the case against his father 12 years back. In all this, they get the help of Rita's journalist brother (Pahari Sanyal) who, through his articles and friends in the Press, gathers public momentum to finally reopen the case.
Shankar presents the case himself and through various evidences and tact presentations, successfully pleads in favour of his father and proves the involvement of the actual criminal, the government lawyer, who killed Hemangini to benefit from a huge insurance in her name. Prashanta Choudhury is acquitted. Meanwhile, with 12 years of wretched life in the prisons and the thought that his wife and child had perished due to poverty, he seems to lose his mental balance. However, when brought in the midst of his family, sense and wellness returns to him. He thanks Rita's brother for his immense help and asks his sister's hand for his son Shankar.
The Times Of India wrote Bengal has no doubt gifted so many great names in acting and entertainment, some far more talented than the duo. Still, time hasn’t worn down the sweet memory of Uttam-Suchitra. The why’s and how’s of their chemistry mystified a generation that saw the pairing as romantic legends.[7]
Box Office
The film became critically acclaimed and a huge blockbuster at the box office and ran for 100 days in theatres. The film collected five times from the budget. This is also one of the highest grossing Bengali film of 1955.
